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Miami Alarm co. owner convicted of tax evasion

MIAMI - William Oertwig Jr., a 28-year veteran of the Miami-Dade Police Department and owner of Intercontinental Electronic Security Systems, an installation and monitoring company, was convicted in late August on tax evasion charges.

According to the U.S. AttorneyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Office, Oertwig was convicted of six counts of attempting to evade and defeat tax for failing to claim any taxable income from 1996 to 2001.

Oertwig filed false W-4 forms with Miami-Dade County for each of the relevant years, stating he was exempt from any withholdings, said Marjorie Selige, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Additionally, she said, Oertwig placed all of his assets in numerous abusive trusts in an effort to conceal them from the Internal Revenue Service. Oertwig also gave false statements to IRS agents and refused to respond to a grand jury subpoena.

A woman who answered the phone at OertwigÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s home declined to be identified, but said Oertwig had refused to pay income taxes in protest of what he said were unfair tax laws. She also said she was not sure what OertwigÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s pending imprisonment would mean for Intercontinental.

This was not OertwigÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s first protest-rooted run-in with the legal system.

According to published reports, in 2000, Oertwig was demoted and written up by police department supervisors for refusing to write traffic tickets. He told the Miami New Times that police powers should not be used to collect cash for the government. He also declined to confiscate a shotgun from a woman who had fired it during a domestic disturbance in 1995, saying all citizens had the right to bear arms, according to the Miami New Times.

When sentenced on Nov. 14, Oertwig will face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.